[lbo-talk] *Materialism and Empirio-Criticism*

[andie nachgeborenen]

The sad news is that it is real hard to escape the
conclusion that quantum theory itself -- not a theory
about quantum mechanics -- says that the states of
particles are observer dependent in a very deep way.
For a popular, nonmathematical account accessible to
any college educated person, see Nick Davies, Quantum
Reality. There has been much ingenuity escaping this
conclusion. None of the alternatives has gained
general acceptance. 

--- Jon Johanning <jjohanning at igc.org> wrote:
> On Monday, September 1, 2003, at 01:32  PM, andie
> nachgeborenen wrote:
> 
> > The hard case for realism even on the NOA is
> quantum
> > mechanics. There the science itself sure as hells
> eems
> > to tell that what there is, is in an important way
> > observer-dependent.
> 
> I'm not quite sure of that. What happens to one
> photon, or whatever, 
> depends on other photons it's interacting with (good
> Buddhist 
> "co-dependent origination," as someone pointed out a
> while back), but 
> does it depend on an *observer* -- some sort of
> (pardon the expression) 
> consciousness observing it?
> 
> Anyway, I've never understood enough quantum physics
> to follow the 
> argument past this point, so I'll have to leave it
> to my intellectual 
> betters.
> 
> Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org
> _________________________________
> "The Sage is the same way --
>      He does not claim greatness over anything
>      He's not even aware of his own greatness
> Tell me, what could be greater than this?"  -- Lao
> Tzu 34
> 
> ___________________________________
>
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